XR650L losing oil, from sump breather I think..

[Baron Bolton]

I hope someone can shed some light on this.
I've had a search on here and on the HUBB, and internet in general, and can't find a great deal of info that seems specific to my problem, sorry if I'm repeating an old story though.

Bike is a 2008 Honda XR650L
I am now about 7,000 miles into my hopefully RTW trip
Bike has about 13,000 miles on the clock
www.GABE-RTW.co.uk

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I'm losing a lot of oil. It's being lost, I'm almost certain, from the sump breather.
I though it was splashing up the hose somehow, and getting, in liquid form, into the airbox, back thorugh the filter, and leaking from the airbox cover.
I went to add a length of pipe to the hose connecting sump and airbox, as a solution to the splashing, that I thought was the problem.
But a Russian engineer I got chatting to, suggested it may be 'blow-by', where leaks past the piston rings pressurise the sump area, and force air out of the sump breather.

I decided to disconnect the breather tube, and started the engine, sure enough clear pulses of air were coming from the tube, and putting my finger in the flow of gas, I could feel the moisture of oil vapour in the air.

So then...

As one of my many wise modifications, I removed a charcoal canister from the sump breather system, and it is now just a plain hose.
Is this part of the problem?
What, if any, amount of gas would you expect to be coming from the sump breather?
I am thinking I'll get a set of rings somehow, and find a workshop somewhere, and replace them.
Is this the best thing to do, are there any other checks I need to do?
Does anything else need to be replaced, along with the rings?

[XR Mad]

just remember the piston going up and down creates crankcase pressure be carefull your not mistaking this for ring blowby a compression tester will let you know if the rings are knacked or not. If compression is low when you do the test pour a little engine oil through the sparkplug hole and re-test if the compression goes up theres a good chance it's the rings if it stays the same its more likley to be the valves anyway good luck

[Baron Bolton]

Thanks dude, I've been told a few times that the big singles in particular, do displace a lot of air when thumping up and down.

I'm now in Georgia, and developed though it is, I think finding a compression tester might be optimistic. I'll ba back in Turkey pretty soon, and maybe that will be easier.

The problem remains, that I'm using a fair bit of oil, and it's getting into the airbox.
I can't say I feel there's a lack of compression, I'm carrying quite a bit of kit, and bike has no trouble with lack of power, hauling us up and down mountains.

Anyhoo, watch this space. I'll report back if and when I get to the bottom of it.
Gabe

[StumpyFingers]

It could just be normal usage, but due to a heavy load it may feel the strain more.
I am not sure about the oil consumption figures but singles do use some oil.

[catteeclan]

There's a breather pipe from the cam cover to the oil tank, check this is clear, although it'll be the first time I've seen it blocked. Maybe kinked?
Is the oil level in the engine ok? Poss oil pump prob?
If the other crankcase pipes are clear and you're checking the oil level correctly then it can only be pressure leaking passed the rings or maybe thye headgasket blowing into the cam chain opening. Be the first time I'd seen the last one there too.

Hope you're just over filling, good luck.

[Baron Bolton]

It is not without a measure of embarrassment, that I hold my hand up, and say that this problem was much more a user error (the user being me), than Hondas.

Only now have I discovered the importance of exactly when you check the oil level. I'm not sure what the manual says, I guess something like 5 minutes at idle, then allow to stand vertical for a minute or so, before checking level with dipstick.

I had been much less pedantic about the timing of this process, and recently this has led to a low reading of oil level. Which was followed by a top up that wasn't really needed. This excess was shed via the breather, making me think the problem was worse.

This is the only explanation I can think would explain the situation.
It seems much better now, and I'm cautious about getting the reading right. If it seems odd, I'll let it cool or warm, and test again, often getting a different reading.

It is using a bit of oil, and I think the breather is the problem. I will replace the charcoal canister at the next opportunity.

So sorry for wasting your time folks, I only hope that someone reads this in the future and finds it helps them out.
Thanks for your input.

[Daz Max]

Result!
Could have been a lot worse!
Good luck with the rest of the trip.